


Future Continuous

by Fabrisse



Category: The 4400
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-02-20
Updated: 2007-02-20
Packaged: 2017-11-16 15:49:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/541180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fabrisse/pseuds/Fabrisse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A view of Nikki Hudson's relationship with The 4400 and Shawn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Future Continuous

**Author's Note:**

  * For [krazykipper](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=krazykipper).



> Written for: krazykipper in the New Year Resolutions 2009

Shawn both amazed and frightened her. It had always been like that.

Even before he'd been taken to the future, even before he'd returned, his easy presence had amazed her and what she thought about him frightened her. She loved hanging out with Danny so she could see his big brother. Everyone told her it was a crush, which she would grow out of it. They were wrong.

She'd missed him while he was gone. And not once had she ever believed he was responsible for Kyle's coma. When the other kids at school talked about him, well, they'd learned pretty quickly not to do it in front of her -- far faster than they'd learned not to talk like that in front of Danny.

When he came back, though, Nikki's amazement turned to awe at his power to heal, and her fright became terror when he started to drain the life from someone.

He was still Shawn -- impetuous, talented Shawn. Now, instead of being too old for her, looking at her like a little sister, Nikki made him see her as a woman his own age. Nikki had tried to be fair to Danny, but in her heart, she knew it was always Shawn for her.

Making love on the beach was so perfect. She knew it was supposed to be some warm tropical exotic place in all the beach fantasies ever. But this was better because it was Shawn, even if it was a lake beach in the foothills of Washington. Shawn, the person she'd wanted since she was twelve was her first, and he'd been gentle and sweet and responsive to her -- how could she help but respond to him.

It had felt like a knife through her heart when Shawn walked out of their lives, because, this time, it was his choice.

***

Shawn remembered her. Shawn cured her father. Shawn stood her up for sushi.

The head of The 4400 Center wasn't the boy she'd known. Nikki had always liked his easy confidence. She wondered, back in high school, if he realized he was the leader among his friends. Things just seemed to happen around him, and when he was abducted, everyone became conscious of the fact things weren't happening anymore.

At the end of the school year, Nikki'd found a school back in Ohio that was much better for her major. Certainly, that was what she'd told everyone. The truth was, she'd needed to get as far away from Shawn Farrell as she could.

It helped that Ohio was too far from the ocean for good sushi.

***

Nikki lost four acquaintances and one close friend to the shots.

On Halloween, her current boyfriend, who was nice enough, took her to a 4400 themed party. There were promicin shots available.

None of these people had ever met a 4400. They read Jordan Collier's book. They read the books debunking Jordan Collier's book. They read too much X-Men.

Abilities were cool. The few who understood politics railed against the way the U.S. government had treated its enhanced citizens. The even fewer who followed the internecine struggles between the two major 4400 factions tended to come out in favor of Collier and his collective. For them, he was walking the walk, leading them toward a better future -- one where everyone was special.

The fraternity hosting the party asked that anyone taking the shot leave the party. It was their way of preserving deniability. Of course, not everyone listened.

Around one a.m., a Tri-Delta sister batted her eyes at a cute guy and took his dare to take the shot. Thirty seconds later, Nikki pulled out her cell phone and called 911. The girl began bleeding from her eyes. She was dead before the paramedics even finished taking the address.

Over that weekend there were thirty more deaths in the area, most on or near her campus. She'd seen the coolers filled with needles of promicin. There'd been at least two hundred doses available. If thirty died, there were probably at least that many more developing abilities.

NTAC and the CDC came and quarantined the campus. Everyone was tested. Every room searched. Several people were arrested for possessing promicin, several more for being p-positive without registering an ability with the government. And five people she knew personally were dead. Her boyfriend was arrested for having two doses of promicin in his dorm room.

When she visited him in the holding center, Jimmy hadn't tried to convince her that the stash was his roommate's or that he didn't know anything about it. Jimmy told her he'd planned to propose marriage. Abilities would be their engagement present to each other.

She got up from the visitor's chair and walked out. It never even occurred to her to glance back.

***

When the quarantine of Seattle hit the news, Nikki was already driving back home with her family. She'd worked hard to get her college degree in three years. Intensive summer classes, the maximum course load every single semester had taken their toll on her. But her father, mother, and sister had all come to her graduation. She'd invited Shawn and Danny, but they hadn't been able to come.

Danny got her an iPod and speakers. Shawn's gift had been to pay off her student loans.

They were at Yellowstone when the first news of the epidemic came through. The park rangers were helpful about getting them information as to whether they'd be allowed to return home.

Nikki got the call from Shawn while they were at dinner at the lodge. His mother and brother were dead, killed by the epidemic. He knew she'd want to know.

People who lived in Seattle, but had been away from home were being put up elsewhere at government expense. The Federal Government suggested they stay at Yellowstone. Only registered p-positives would be allowed to return to the city for the moment. Once the ubiquinone preventative was discovered, medical, military, and other emergency personnel were permitted to cross into the quarantine zone.

Over the next week, as the news came out, Nikki thought long and hard. She had no skills which would put her into the government permitted emergency group.

The first thing she did was pick a short playlist on the iPod Danny had given her. It wasn't difficult to find someone giving away the shot -- even as remote as they were from the rest of the world.

When her family went to lunch, she pled a headache. After they left, she put on the music and injected herself.

The playlist ended.

Nikki got up and left a note with her family. She'd need to register herself as p-positive with the park rangers.

She didn't know what her future would bring. Nikki didn't even know what ability she'd develop. In Seattle, she could live at her parent's place and protect it from whatever was happening.

All Nikki knew was that she could go forward to a Seattle that was now calling itself Promise City.

Nikki could go to Shawn.


End file.
